Magnitude 6.0 earthquake in northeastern Taiwan

The tremors were felt in many cities.  Taipei's 101 skyscraper fluctuated 15 cm. Black-outs last several hours and rail traffic in tilt.  The provincial road n.  9 freed from some landslide.

Taipei (AsiaNews) - A magnitude 6.0 earthquake struck northeastern Taiwan at 5.28 this morning.  The epicenter of the earthquake was located 36.5 km south-east of Yilan and at a depth of 22.5 km.

The tremors were felt in many cities of the island: Keelung, Miaoli, Hsinchu, Changhua, Yunlin, and Chiayi, Tainan (see photo 2).  In Taipei, the Taipei 101 skyscraper swung and the instrument used to absorb the oscillations (tuned mass damper) moved 15 cm.

The earthquake caused a blackout for over 10 thousand homes.  For most of them, electricity returned around 10am this morning.

The provincial road n.  9, where landslides had formed with the falling of stones, was freed to traffic within a few hours (photo 1).

Rail traffic was suspended between Yilan and Nan’ao and on the rest of the routes between Yilan, Taipei and Taoyuan  the speed limit was lowered to 60 km/h.

Taiwan is located along the border of two tectonic platforms and is often subjected to earthquakes.  In 2018, an earthquake in Hualian left 9 dead.  In 2016, a quake in the south of the island killed more than 100 people.  In 1999, a magnitude 7.6 earthquake caused more than 2 thousand deaths.